A one week campaign aimed at kicking out measles-rubella from Kisumu county has been launched.
The campaign dubbed “Pamoja Tuangamize Measles” which will run between May 16 and 24 was officially launched by Governor Jack Ranguma's wife, Olivia Ranguma and county Health Executive Dr Elizabeth Ogaja.
Speaking during the launch of the campaign in Kisumu Dr Ogaja said the county has partnered with UNICEF and the Lions Club International in a move aimed at vaccinating 536,000 children below the age of 15 from all the seven sub-counties
“In the period of January and March this year, we had managed to cover up to 84 per cent of the target group and we expect to cover up to 95 per cent in these campaign period. Last year we experienced challenges in the number of health professionals administering the vaccines and also financial constraints hence we were not able to reach higher coverage,” said Ms Ogaja.
She said the vaccine jabs will be administered in fixed locations as opposed to the yester-years when the campaign was on a door to door basis.
“We are working with both public and private health facilities to carry out the vaccination exercise. We have also pitched tent in primary schools and churches for ease of accessibility to children,” she said.
Ms Ogaja however, raised concern over the reported cases of some parents who are not allowing their children to get immunized because of the cultural myths and assumptions.
She said such beliefs hamper the county’s efforts to move to zero cases of infectious diseases.